The present invention regards systems for facilitating crucial communications among mobile users by means of multi-modal, geo-referenced and time-referenced messages, as well as communications to and from, and remote control of, stationary and mobile objects. The systems allow users to create, annotate, transmit, retrieve and review voice, iconic, visual, tactile, and text messages, and/or in some embodiments to control apparatus and systems. Each message may include a geographic marker based upon its place of origination (e.g., GPS coordinates) and/or area of dissemination, and further may include a time-reference regarding the time of creation and/or duration of transmission, receipt or review. In some embodiments, the present invention allows users to “tag” or otherwise identify certain structures or geographical features at a location, and send messages regarding the tagged structure or feature to other individuals who might have the structure or geographical feature in their field of view or near their geographical location.
The systems of the present invention are designed to support human interactions occurring in reduced geographical locations, including environments like battlefields, first response operations, and daily life social networking, and provide dynamic communications systems where mobile users may improve their performance by communicating in association with their physical surroundings. Components of the systems are designed to provide flexibility to cope with environments where different profiles/roles, levels of expertise and knowledge are present among the mobile users. Furthermore, some components are designed to support basic human analogical communication, such as gestures, tactile sensing, visual icons, and verbal commands, thereby providing users with an intuitive way to support and extend their communications. In some embodiments, the devices and systems augment the real world perceived by users by incorporating geo-tempo-registered data overlaid on see-through displays.
The systems further aim to support Stigmergy, a form of communication where the environment plays a fundamental role in the communication process. By supporting the annotation of geo-tempo-registered, multi-modal messages, the systems will facilitate the coordination, communication, and awareness among mobile users who most likely have limited access to both global information and information processing capabilities.
Furthermore, the systems preferably include an agent-based architecture to address scalability, high performance, and fault tolerance features, and may be used in distributed or centralized computing environments.
Although the applications of the present invention are focused primarily on enabling communication through and with highly dynamic environments, they can be extended to other domains, like video games and virtual reality, and for everyday applications.